Before you react to the headline, I'd ask you to read the reasoning. I'm not sure it persuades anybody to anything--I think the bounty punishment thing is something that people react one way or another to, and get locked into their point of view. Like many things in life.

Sean Payton can't talk much publicly. As it is, Peter King noted on Twitter that the NFL was not happy he briefly talked to the media at the owners meeting. In some of the few words he said, he said that he did not believe he lied to Goodell at their two meetings.

It is quite possible that both Goodell and Payton honestly believe their points of view. That is the difficult thing about investigations. People remember things differently. People perceive others actions differently. And nobody has a detector that can discover what is truly in someone's heart.